First Book Prize

CDS > Awards > First Book Prize in Photography > Frequently Asked Questions

	First Book Prize Overview Guidelines Application Materials Frequently Asked Questions Biennial Winners: 2003 \| 2005 \| 2007 Announcement: Mary Ellen Mark to Judge 2008 Competition
	Frequently Asked Questions Q: Can I submit my images in a form other than as jpegs on cd? A: No. Images can originate in any format but must be submitted digitally on cd. No e-mail submission of images is accepted. Q: I've just started a project and have only twenty photographs from that work. Should I submit them with twenty images from a different project? A: No. The forty photographs need to represent a larger, coherent body of work from which the book would be drawn. The book will contain approximately seventy to eighty photographs that have been selected from all the photographer's images for this project. Q: Your guidelines state that "at least twenty of the photographs must have been made within the last three years (after 2004)." Will images made in 2004 fulfill this requirement? A: No, by “after 2004,” we mean since January 2005 (the three years of 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08); at least half the images submitted with your entry should have been made in those years. Q: May one photographer submit proposals for two different projects, i.e. two different sets of forty photographs representing two separate potential book projects in progress? A: Yes. One person can send in two, or more, entries. The submissions must be sent under separate cover, and an entry fee is required for each proposal. Q: May a photographer submit both black-and-white and color photos as part of one forty-image submission? A: Yes. A mix of color and black-and-white images is fine—if representative of the body of work that would be drawn on to create the book. Q: My photographs are meant to run with text. Can I submit both? A: No. The only text that will appear in the book is the judge's introduction, a short afterword by the photographer, and captions. The judges will see your photographs and the written materials requested only. Q: What information should I include in my captions? A: The captions need to specify when and where the photographs were taken and should contain any other information you think is crucial to understanding the photographs. Q: Is the prize only open to American citizens, or can permanent U.S. residents of other nationalities apply? A: The prize is only open to American citizens. banner image: Allen Miller drags a young doe from the woods while hunting with family and friends, Kalona, Iowa, 2005. From Driftless: Photographs from Iowa by Danny Wilcox Frazier, winner of the third biennial Center for Documentary Studies / Honickman First Book Prize in Photography top